Blind Intersection
by Shujinkakusama
Summary: Post-series. Malik transfers to a school in Japan, away from Domino, to start fresh. The world is smaller than he expected. Season 10, round 5, YGO Fanfiction Contest. Sedateshipping oneshot.


**Pairing: **Sedateshipping

**Prompt:** Yugioh Fanfiction Contest Season 10, Round 5

**Word Count:** 1,600

**Warnings:** Fumie's back, some Japanese honorifics. Shizuka refers to Malik as 'Malik-san' in the recap DVD, so I kept it that way. Slightly wobbly timeline. Omori Academy actually exists, but looks nothing like the description. Alas. I might put out more into this one if I get the chance. I have a lot more outlined.

* * *

Omori Academy was everything Kawai Shizuka had dreamed of, and then some.

The grounds were expansive, with the sort of views that attracted movie companies once every few years, to film romantic tales of true love under the ginko trees, and a red brick building that looked more like it belonged somewhere in Europe than a short train ride from Tokyo. The uniforms were crisp and new; after spending all of junior high wrapped up in a sailor uniform, Shizuka was thrilled to trade it in for a neat blazer with stockings. Perhaps more importantly, there were _dorms_, even if they weren't available to first years, but she had an entire year ahead of her to convince her mother that commuting by train and spending more nights than not at Fumie-chan's aunt's house was counterintuitive.

Her first semester of high school passed almost too quickly; Omori was everything she could have dreamed of, even if the workload was hard to juggle. Her grades remained high across the board, and through Fumie, she managed to find several new friends to help fill the voids left by those that had gone elsewhere for high school.

Life was officially, well and truly, perfect.

* * *

One wing over, however…

After a long career of relying on planning things to the second, Ishtal Malik's life had finally gotten away from him.

It had taken months to convince Isis and Rishid to let him return to Japan; that he needed time to find himself, to learn how not to slip back into old patterns and habits. Egypt was too much like _home_; there were too many places he'd met the Ghouls in secret, too many loose ends he hadn't ever tied up from his days leading the crime ring. Too many faces that looked like minds he'd entered, and too many lives he might have ruined; the best thing for him, they had finally agreed, was to start over somewhere fresh.

Japan hadn't been his first idea, but it was indisputably the most logical place to start over. Isis had some ties there, beyond Domino City; the Egyptian Embassy in Japan was located in Tokyo, and if it came to it, she only needed to make a few calls before her little brother could be on the next flight home. Moreover, she and Rishid understood his desire to duel all too well; Japan had more tournaments, more arenas, and more local challengers than almost anywhere else in the world. It was the place True Duelists gathered and tested one another. If Malik _could_ find himself anywhere, it would have to be there.

What his siblings didn't need to know was that his deck lay untouched in his drawer, and had since the start of the term.

Similarly, they didn't need to know that his application for Domino High had never made it to the post office. Or that he had deliberately chosen Omori Academy to minimize the chances of running into Yuugi and his friends. It was just as well, he'd told himself. They were probably busy coping with the Pharaoh's passing, anyway. If he waited, it would be better for everyone. While the little King of Games had made it abundantly clear that he held no grudge, something that was almost impossible to believe in and of itself, his friends had every reason in the world not to extend that same branch of forgiveness. He could accept that. If anything, he _expected_ that.

No, it was much better if he waited. Even if that meant waiting here, in Japan, a million miles from Egypt. Even if it meant attending this prestigious school, with classmates a year younger than he was pulling better grades in their sleep than he could. He was behind; socially, intellectually, emotionally, _behind_ his peers.

Malik hated it. As nice a distraction as studying well past lights out was, he _still_ hated it, with the muffled sort of hatred that came from deliberately burning himself out as often as possible. There was little satisfaction in burying himself in work when he still barely scraped the middle of the test charts.

He heaved a sigh, holed up in his usual corner come lunchtime. The food, he had to concede, was delicious, even if Rishid could do better. But he'd already eaten around most of his bento, pushed the chicken out of reach, and that only left studying. Predictable, mindless, studying.

The sound of the chair across from him squealing across the linoleum cut into his thoughts, and the fair-haired Egyptian's head shot up. There weren't many students that bothered with him, but with his luck, it would be Tajima again, come to remind him how perfect his long legs would be for whichever sports-club-he-really-really-wanted-more-people-in-come-on-stop-studying-you'll-grow-mold.

Jyounouchi Katsuya's little sister, however, was _not_ who he expected meet eyes with.

"Malik-san?" the girl asked, sounding unsure, and he nodded slowly. To his surprise, relief spread across her features, and the hand that had been at the back of the chair went to tuck some of her hair back behind her ear. "Do you mind if I sit here? I won't bother you if you're studying."

"Sure," was not the answer Malik wanted to give, but it escaped his lips before he could catch himself. It was easy to clamp down on the bubbling _panicked_ feeling rising in the back of his mind. Jyounouchi's sister couldn't possibly live with him, but that hardly meant that they were estranged, and if she told him... It might not have been a guarantee for disaster, but it presented a very real possibility that Yuugi's friends would find him out too soon.

Silence settled between them. Shizuka's bento came from home, tied up in a brightly colored cloth, with white rabbits printed on it. Somehow, that fit. He couldn't put a name to the girl's face, but the white rabbit print and matching utensils seemed perfect.

It didn't take long, however, for Malik to realize that he had read the same paragraph six times without comprehending a word of it. No matter how unobtrusive the girl was being, her presence alone was too distracting to cope with.

Malik couldn't place _why_. He mulled it over in silence, flipping through his book occasionally to maintain the illusion that he was following along with the text. What little he knew about the girl-that she was younger than he was, that she wasn't a duelist, and that she must have lived with another family member, or else his Ghouls would have brought a dossier on her during his preparation for the tournament-didn't fit together in any shape that resembled an answer to any of the questions running through his mind. Why sit with him? How much did she know about him? How much had Jyounouchi _told her_? None of these had answers-but then, how telling would it be to outright _ask_?

He frowned down at the textbook, then turned the page in the hopes that maybe, somehow, just _maybe_ there would be a convenient hint. There wasn't. Malik couldn't bring himself to be surprised by that.

But just as he resolved to get up, toss out what was left on his tray, and get a head start back to his classroom, the school bell chimed the end of the period.

"Thank you, Malik-san," Shizuka said, flashing a smile as she retied her bento. Malik wondered, distantly, whether she'd finished the entire thing. Not that it mattered. "I'm sorry if I bothered you."

"It's fine," Malik insisted, hurriedly flipping his books shut and shoving them into his bag. His lunch very nearly went with them, but he caught himself at the last second. "Uh-if you could… Don't tell your brother I'm at this school? No one knows."

For only a moment, Shizuka looked perplexed, and Malik's mind raced. If at all possible, he wanted to avoid _explaining_ the why behind that. He would only sound that much more suspicious if he had to try on the fly, and as low as his marks were, he wasn't about to risk missing the start of Suyama-sensei's class.

"Okay!"

Whatever answer Malik had been expecting, _that_ wasn't it.

Certainly not readily, and not offered with the same smile. The girl didn't bat an eye; gave no indication that the request was unusual or off-putting, and Malik found himself at a total loss. He stared, startled, for a handful of seconds. Thanks were probably in order, but the word that wanted to come was a _question_, and he barely had the sense to bite it back.

And she stared back, but when her smile melted into an even mixture of confusion and concern, Malik almost opened his mouth to ask anyway. Just to stop whatever question she might have been cooking up.

"Shizuka-chan, let's _go_!" Another girl exclaimed shrilly, swooping in so quickly that Malik was half surprised that she didn't come equipped with a jetpack. "Jeeze, I don't even know _why_ you sat all the way over here, Shizuka-chan, but we're gonna be _late_!"

"Ah-Fumie-chan, I'm sorry!" Shizuka stammered, letting her friend lead her away by the wrist. She looked back, but briefly, and waved her bento. "Bye, Malik-san!"

Numbly, Malik waved back after her as she disappeared through the cafeteria, feeling somewhat robbed. Not that he had been doing spectacularly with talking to the girl, or even articulating the most basic things, but he hadn't been _finished_.

At least he had the answer to _one_ of his questions, though. That was something. It wasn't _much_, but it was something to build up from.


End file.
